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Florida Panthers, together with the Russians Sergei Bobrovsky, Vladimir Tarasenko and Dmitry Kulikov, won the Stanley Cup , Nikita Kucherov became the top scorer of the regular season for the second time in his career, Washington Capitals leader Alexander Ovechkin approached Wayne Gretzky’s eternal record, and Valery Nichushkin lost the former trust of the Colorado Avalanche leaders — the 2023 season ended on Tuesday night/24 National Hockey League.
Bobrovsky at the age of 35 won the first Stanley Cup in his career
The Florida Panthers, after failing in last year's Stanley Cup final, once again reached the decisive stage of the NHL season and, having beaten the Edmonton Oilers (4-3), became the winner of the tournament for the first time in their history. Three Russian hockey players celebrated their triumph as part of the Panthers: goalkeeper Sergei Bobrovsky, defenseman Dmitry Kulikov and forward Vladimir Tarasenko. For Tarasenko, this was the second Stanley Cup in his career — the native of Novosibirsk joined the rare list of Russians who won this trophy as a player more than once. Before him, only 15 hockey players managed to achieve this. Sergei Bobrovsky and Dmitry Kulikov won the Stanley Cup for the first time in their careers, becoming the 37th and 38th Russians, respectively, to have their name inscribed on the trophy.
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Bobrovsky achieved his first victory at the club level at the age of 35. Until now, the famous Russian goalkeeper has only won the World Championship in 2014 in senior men's tournaments. At the same time, Bobrovsky is deservedly one of the best goalkeepers on the planet. He remains the first and only Russian to win the Vezina Trophy twice, the prize for the best goaltender of the NHL regular season. The Florida goalkeeper took second place in the number of matches (94) and victories (45) in the NHL playoffs among Russian goalkeepers.
Kulikov, although two years younger than Bobrovsky, took longer to reach his first Stanley Cup than the famous goalkeeper. The Russian defenseman made his NHL debut back in 2009, when he was selected by Florida in the draft of the same year. Since then, Kulikov spent seven seasons with the Panthers, but was then traded to the Buffalo Sabers. Due to injury, the Russian spent his only season in the Blades camp unconvincingly and soon left the team. He subsequently moved on to six more clubs before returning to Florida in the summer of 2023 on a one-year, $1 million contract. In total, Kulikov played 948 matches in the NHL in the regular season and 53 in the playoffs. In terms of the number of games in the league, he ranks third among all active Russian hockey players and is second only to Ovechkin (1,426 in the regular season and 151 in the playoffs) and Malkin (1,145 in the championships and 177 in the playoffs).
Panarin's unfulfilled dream
The New York Rangers, for which Igor Shesterkin and Artemi Panarin play, were considered the main contender for the 2024 Stanley Cup. After the failure last season, the Blueshirts appointed ex-Washington Capitals coach Peter Laviolette as head coach and under him The management immediately won the regular season. In the playoffs, the club from New York also confidently reached the finals of the Eastern Conference, alternately beating Washington (4-0) and the Carolina Hurricanes (4-2), but lost to Florida (2-2) in the Stanley Cup semifinals. 4).
Igor Shesterkin performed best among the Rangers players in the playoffs: the Russian goalkeeper won 10 wins in 16 games with a save percentage of 92.7%. But the main hopes were placed on the main star of the team — Artemy Panarin. The Russian striker had the best regular season of his career, breaking the 100-point mark for the first time: in 82 matches he scored 120 points (49 goals and 71 assists). In the playoffs, Panarin scored 15 points (5+10) in 16 games. The 32-year-old forward was confident that the 2023/24 season would be a championship for his team.
«This year I felt support outside of hockey. For the fans: in five years here I have never felt such expectations, like this season. It seems to me that the whole hockey world wanted us to win,” journalist Johnny Lazarus quotes Panarin.
Kucherov again became the best in the NHL, but lost to Bobrovsky's club
Russian Tampa Bay Lightning forward Nikita Kucherov also had the best regular season in his NHL career and set a number of new records: personal, club and among all hockey players from Russia in the league.
Kucherov became the first Russian in NHL history to reach 140 points — in 81 games he scored 144 points (44+100). The 30-year-old Lightning forward is the only hockey player from Russia who managed to score at least 120 points in the same regular season twice in his career. He also became only the fifth player in NHL history to make 100 assists in the championship: Wayne Gretzky previously achieved this (a record 11 times, the best result being 163 assists in 80 games in the 1985-86 season) and Bobby Orr once each ( 102 assists in 78 games in the 1970-71 season, Mario Lemieux (114 assists in 76 games in the 1970-71 season) and Connor McDavid (100 assists in 76 games in the 2023-24 season). At the end of the regular season, Kucherov became the top scorer and won the Art Ross Trophy for the second time in his career. The Tampa forward became the second Russian hockey player in history after Malkin to win this prize more than once.
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However, in the playoffs, Kucherov and the “lightning” ended their performance already at the first round stage. They lost to Florida (1-4) in five matches, and Kucherov was effective in all games (0+7). It is noteworthy that the Russian forward was again eliminated with Tampa in the first round, being the top scorer of the regular season and losing to Sergei Bobrovsky's team. In the 2018/19 season, Kucherov also won the Art Ross Trophy, and his team lost to the Columbus Blue Jackets in the first round of the playoffs (0-4), whose goal was also defended by Bobrovsky.
A controversial season for Ovechkin
The leader of Washington and the best sniper of the 21st century in the NHL, Alexander Ovechkin, last season overcame the distance from one of the main disappointments of the league to the author of a number of historical records, who became one of the elite scorers. The 38-year-old forward spent the first half of the regular season with abnormally low performance.
From the start of the season in mid-October until the end of January, Ovechkin scored only 8 goals in 43 matches. During this period, the Washington captain set a new personal anti-record in the NHL, not scoring in 14 games in a row. However, after the league All-Star Game, in which Ovechkin did not take part, the Russian’s statistics improved. Thus, Ovechkin scored in six games in a row for the first time since 2018, and in just one season he scored 31 goals and became the best in NHL history in the number of seasons with 30 goals or more — Alexander had 18 of a possible 19 such seasons. In total, Ovechkin scored 853 goals in the regular season in his NHL career. To set a new league record and surpass Wayne Gretzky, the Russian sniper had 42 goals left to score. In addition, Ovechkin rose to 13th place in the list of top NHL scorers in the regular season — in 1426 matches he scored 1550 points (853+697). Among active players in the league, only Canadian Sidney Crosby from Pittsburgh has scored more Ovi (1596 points in 1272 games, 10th place).
Improving his performance in the second half of the regular season, Ovechkin helped Washington reach the playoffs. However, the Capitals lost to the Rangers in the first round (0-4), and for the first time in his career, the famous Russian sniper did not score a single point in a single Stanley Cup.
Malkin and Kaprizov are out of the playoffs
The 2022/23 season was the first in the NHL when Pittsburgh with Malkin and Washington with Ovechkin did not qualify for the league playoffs. This situation could have repeated itself last season, but the Capitals were still able to get into the Stanley Cup at the end. The Penguins don't. Evgeni Malkin encountered such a state of affairs for the first time in his career.
At the same time, Malkin was one of the team's top scorers in the regular season — in 82 games he scored 67 points (27+40). Only Crosby had more (94 points). At the end of the season, Evgeni Malkin reached 37th place on the list of top scorers in NHL history (1296 points), and also approached the mark of 500 career goals in the championships. The Russian only needs to score two goals to become the fourth active player with 500 goals in the regular season.
Also without the playoffs was the Minnesota Wild with Kirill Kaprizov. The Russian forward did not take part in the Stanley Cup for the first time in his career. In 75 regular season matches, he scored 96 points (46+50). The Russian entered the top four snipers in Wild history (160 goals) and became the first club player to score 40 goals more than once during the regular season.
Nichushkin let Colorado down again
Valery Nichushkin completed the 2022/23 season ahead of his Colorado Avalanche partners. The Russian forward, for family reasons, left the club during the first round of the playoffs, in which the Avalanche eventually lost to the Seattle Kraken (3-4). Despite all the difficulties, the striker was able to take part in the 2023/24 competition and showed his best result in his career — 53 points (28+25) in 54 matches. At the same time, the Russian was forced to miss part of the championship, as he was undergoing an assistance program for NHL players, which was created to provide support to players experiencing, in particular, problems with alcohol, drugs, gambling and psychological difficulties.
Nichushkin also performed successfully in the Stanley Cup: in eight playoff games, he scored nine goals, scored the first hat-trick of his NHL career and made one assist, retaining the title of the best sniper of the tournament. However, during the series against the Dallas Stars, the forward again left the club — Valery was transferred to the third stage of the NHL player assistance program and suspended for at least six months. Without the Russian striker, Colorado lost to Dallas (2-4) and was eliminated from the playoffs. At the end of the season, the club's management did not hide its disappointment in Nichushkin's behavior and responded to rumors about the possible termination of the contract with the hockey player:
«Your stomach growls when you see the length of his suspension. We want Val to fix everything in his life. The day of his suspension was disappointing for us. We'll see where this all leads. There is a possibility that he will return next season. Nichushkin will restore trust in the organization. We have considered all options. The obvious thing is to terminate the contract, right? For us, this is not an option,” the American media quoted the club’s general manager.
Kuznetsov left Ovechkin's club
This past NHL season was Evgeny Kuznetsov's last in Washington. During the regular season, the Russian striker was often criticized by American journalists and fans and was even transferred to the reserve for some time by the new head coach of the Capitals, Spencer Carbery. According to the specialist, the Russian needed to cope with psychological difficulties.
Kuznetsov was unable to return to his previous level in Washington, showed the worst performance in his career, and in the winter he left the club to undergo an assistance program for NHL players. At the same time, the Capitals transferred the forward to their farm club in the AHL and submitted him to the waiver draft, from which no one took the Russian. Washington later traded Kuznetsov to the Carolina Hurricanes, retaining half of his salary. In Carolina, Evgeniy scored 7 points (2+5) in 20 regular-season games and 6 points (4+2) in 10 playoff games, scoring the first goal of the Stanley Cup. His contract runs until the end of the 2024/25 season.
Fedotov left CSKA and still made his debut in the NHL
The end of the NHL regular season also marked the debut of goaltender Ivan Fedotov for the Philadelphia Flyers. The Russian signed a contract with the “pilots” back in May 2022, but in the summer of that year he was detained by military commissariat officers. After serving a year at the Naval Academy in St. Petersburg, Fedotov resumed his hockey career, but signed a contract with CSKA Moscow, having a valid agreement with Philadelphia. The International Hockey Federation (IIHF) declared the goalkeeper's contract with the army team invalid and imposed sanctions on the Russian and the club. Despite them, Fedotov played a season for CSKA in the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL).
On March 28, the “red-blues” announced the termination of the agreement with the goalkeeper, after which he joined “Philadelphia” and made his debut for the “Flyers” in the NHL. In three incomplete matches, he conceded 10 goals, and the “pilots” failed to make it to the playoffs. In April, Fedotov signed a new two-year contract with the club for a total of $6.6 million.